Cyprus and a spin of the globe

Mar 25, 2013

Cyprus has been in the news this last week, with a banking crisis and eurozone intrigue.

That’s reminded me of the grade school report I did on that island in the Mediterranean.

I distinctly remember walking into the Caldwell (Idaho) Public Library one Saturday, past the circulation desk and the children’s section, then over to the cabinets where I pulled out a folder dedicated to the island. Inside the folder was a copy of National Geographic, and in that an article about the history of Cyprus. I took the journal over to a table near the giant globe on which my father had once shown me the island he’d lived on as a Peace Corps volunteer (Hispaniola, where he served in the Dominican Republic), and I sat and took notes about how the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots had divided the island.

If I ever become president, I told myself many times since, I’d go to Cyprus and help them find a peaceful solution to sharing the island without walls.

Closer to home, Erin has started a new family activity, in which she picks a country each week and Anna and Malia look through our various books — the Statesman’s Yearbook is still the best — to learn about the nation and its people. Geography was a favorite subject for Erin, and me, and we hope our children are as fascinated by the world as we once were, and continue to be.

Yesterday, Malia and Oliver and I went to Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill. There was a small globe on one of the shelves, and Oliver instinctually reached for it. Made me smile, because at home our globe, while a fraction of the size of the giant Caldwell library globe, sits on a sidetable in our living room for anyone to spin.